‘SAY IT WITH A CARD’ #BriffaCelebrates 98 years and still going strong. The GCA, with a family feel but a mighty influence, do many things right for its members in the greeting card industry. Maybe we are gushing but we also think they are doing their bit for humanity by promoting that level of human…

In July 2013, the Premier League successfully obtained an injunction from the High Court requiring certain internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to a website (FirstRow Sports) which had acted as a portal to third party streams of sporting events. Recently, the Premier League went back to the High Court and obtained the first…

Tonight I leave work early to catch my nephew playing in a school production of Carmen. I first saw this opera as a young teenager and to my shame I giggled through the full two and half hours much to the annoyance of everyone around me. What was so funny that I behaved so badly throughout?…

What better than tea with a long term client – world renowned cartoonist Bill Asprey. Perhaps best known for his work on ‘Love Is’ from 1975 onwards Bill has a huge body of very diverse work. He has contributed to almost every major publication in the UK and drawn thousands of cartoons under his nom de…

The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, the Court that specialises in IP matters in England and Wales, recently found that the use of ‘ZUMA’ and ‘DINE IN WITH ZUMA’ infringed the rights of the owner of a trade mark for ‘ZUMA’. However, this was not because there was a likelihood of confusion – the parties’ goods/services…

Google Play have been sending out notices to app developers without privacy policies in their store, threatening to switch off the lights if you do not put an adequate privacy policy in place or cease collecting “personal or sensitive data”. Personal data is wider than most businesses think. It is far broader than information such…

Last month, the UK High Court handed down judgment in relation to an account of profits calculation in the long-running saga between Champagne Louis Roderer and J Garcia Carrion following a 2015 finding of infringement of Roderer’s CRISTAL trade marks. Champagne Louis Roderer (CLR) is an internationally-known French producer of champagnes, in particular its prestige…

You may have heard of BrewDog – the Scottish craft beer brewery and bar chain often credited as being a key player in the craft beer “revolution” in the UK. Usually in the headlines for quirky PR stunts and innovative approach to business, it will come as a shock to many that the headlines this…

I had a friend at University Rory O’Brien who used to often say when stressed ‘A pint of plain is your only man’. Once in front of a pint of plain he would wax lyrical on all manner of subjects but often on Irish literature including and his love of his namesake Flann O’Brien. It…

Puma has recently had its trade mark application for FOREVER FASTER refused in relation to footwear and sports goods. The EU General Court found that the mark was a simple laudatory statement which wasn’t sufficiently distinctive and, on that basis, it refused the application… Poor Puma? Well, the trade mark rules on distinctiveness are pretty…

When people announce ‘and now for something completely different’ what follows is often disappointingly not so very different. We were determined not to fall into that trap when organising our team social and Jo Shah and Ben Soyza from The Bollywood Co had us in the Bollywood groove within minutes of starting our class. The session was…

It began down under … In 2012, Australia became the first country in the world to introduce legislation requiring plain packaging for cigarettes. Since then, several countries have followed suit or have made commitments to introduce plain packaging (including the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland). In Australia, the restrictions include a single colour…